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Charcuterie Noir

I try to avoid falling into the trap of blogging about work, a failing to which my ilk seem uniquely susceptible, but this seemed like it had unavoidable crossover potential. My summer reading list is larded with hereisiographies, specifically the books that Scots Presbyterians wrote about the bad things they saw in England in the 1640s. Jealous? Anyway, in the second part of Gangraena or A Fresh and Further Discovery of the Errors, Heresies Blasphemies, and dangerous Proceedings of the Sectaries of this time (1646), Thomas Edwards lists all of the new heresies that have dropped since Gangraena #1. Among them, this:

"It is unlawful to eat any manner of bloud in any kind of thing whatsoever, and that Black-puddings are unhallowed meat, and the eating of Black-puddings is a barbarous custome."

To clarify, this is from the list of heretical opinions--in other words, it is heretical to assert that black-puddings, or other food made from blood, is "unhallowed." It is the opposite of a dietary taboo--it is heretical to suggest that eating black pudding, AKA boudin noir, AKA blood sausage, is a barbarous custom. If these folks were around now one imagines that the food pyramid would include six servings/day of black pudding.